been injured, who's been wounded, they cannot stop, they keep moving until they get to the shooter and they have to neutralize the shooter, then they have to care for the wound. there are unconfirmed reports of potentially one or two individuals that don't belong in that school, may or may not be a shooter. there are also unconfirmed reports of injuries. right now, as you know, it's a tremendously chaotic situation, parents are arriving, children are being escorted out by police as they try to assess, number one, do they have the shooter identified and have they dealt with him and is there a potential of a second person who doesn't belong there who may have something to do with this alleged assault? >> it is the top of the hour, 11:00 here on the east coast where this incident is taking place, clint vanzant, if you will hold on the line. i'm chris jansing with jansing and company. we'll continue to watch here

on msnbc, what is happening in newtown, connecticut, it's about an hour away from hartford, connecticut, the capital of that state. right now what we know, 9:41, a call for police according to what we're hearing from state police, they said they got a call from newtown police and they have sent state police to that scene. 9:57, a reverse 911 call went out. we'll go back to wvit where their reporter liz dahl reporting just moments ago what was happening on the ground. >> this is a photo just in to our newsroom of students being evacuated in the last hour or so from sandy hook elementary school. looking at that, that's a snapshot in time literally. it looks like it was done in a fairly orderly fashion. and for the sake of the kids, it doesn't look like it was done in a way where there will be a residual emotional effect.

what you want to do is give them the sense that everything is under control. >> we're talking about kindergartners to first graders, we're talking about very young children. investigators did go room by room to evacuate the school to make sure that these kids are out. >> let's go back now to our liz dahlem, with the school shooting information. what do you have, liz? liz, can you hear me? >> reporter: it's very much an active scene out here, we have got lots of parents looking for their children, just waiting for worth as to whether or not they're okay. i want to show you what it looks like out here on the scene, you can tell that state police are out here, they have been using their -- they have their weapons standing by and the choppers also above the school. that's where the school is located, further down dickenson drive. now that chopper's been sitting up there for the past couple of minutes now, we're told the

children inside that school were evacuated a short while ago. i can tell you that parents have been out here all morning just sort of walking the streets. they can't get any closer to the school than we are right now. you can see the parents just sort of running up the streets, everyone here is just trying to get -- >> again watching live coverage there come out of newtown, connecticut. clint vanzant what's been watching this coverage with us, as we're getting more reports and information from liz who is on the ground and watching, what is your sense about what is happening inside the school? >> well in a situation like this, richard, the state police and responding law enforcement officers have a number of responsibilities. first and foremost, if there is in fact an active shooting situation, they have to get to

the shooter and they have to, the word we just heard this last week in the portland mall shooting, they have to neutralize that shooter, they have to stop him from firing one way or the other. then they have to start identifying any victims who have been injured, they have to get those victims out of that school and then as they hear the local reporter talking, they have to organize ways to get those children out of that school. >> we're listening to live coverage coming out of that school there from wvit. >> we're obviously having some technical difficulties with liz's shot, we will try to bring it up as soon as possible. >> looks like they're having some kind of technical difficulty with their reporter there on the site in newtown, connecticut at that sandy hook elementary school. we're an hour and a half as i mentioned there, clint, since

the first report. what is key, you had said that there were reports of one or two individuals that were at the location that were not authorized. what were your intimating? >> the suggestion is that there is at least one shooter there, perhaps two. realize this a chaotic situation like that, one lone shooter, which is what we have, and if we have a shooting situation, worst-case scenario, a mass shooting scenario, we have about 20 or more of these in the united states every year. but this could be the second such situation we have. what law enforcement is trying to do right now, is to identify the shooter, make sure they have that midwesteperson in custody with. they have to evacuate the children in an orderly fashion. and you and your listeners have to realize too, if police have to do a very cautious room by room search because there could

be another individual allegedly working with the gunman. there could be teachers and students who are hunkered down, this is what they're taught to do, if they can't escape the building, they have to hunker down indoors, hide behind furniture, in closets so state police have to do a room by room search to find any other injured, any other children that are hiding out. >> as a result of what might be a shooting there, as we are try fog get information out of newtown, contract at sandy hook elementary school. we do realize right now is they're holding the ems units, asking that no more come to the school. but at the danbury high school close by, we do not know whether these are students or whether these are administrators, whether these are teachers. but they are holding and asking

that no more emsb brought there. we also understand they had other units requested by other towns but now they're being held back. we have three patients at danbury hospital. we got the first call for help about an hour and 20 minutes ago. and they are now saying to withhold anymore ems units. is this mean that they are close to understanding the breadth and depth of this emergency? >> i think you're right, richard, i think this may well be a situation that just transpired in a very manner of minutes. there are unconfirmed reports of injuries, as you suggest now, we have got confirmation in the hospital. we're told the shooting may have taken place in the main office and that at least one shooter may be down. again, everything appears to be in

inundetermined at this time, but by 12 by stopping any further ems units from coming, it indicates that they have -- if the shooter is under arrest, he has been dealt with by the police. >> let's go back to wvit. >> reporter: good morning, guys, i just spooky to a parent and shirley had been asking me, had any parents been reunited with their children yet. i did speak to one woman who had been reunited with her daughter there at the staging area. she said she got a reverse 911 call telling her there had been a shooting at her daughter's school, sandy hook elementary. when he got here, she parked on the street and she was

frantically look for her daughter. >> we're having trouble with liz's report. the school in a residential area as many schools are in connecticut. we want to go right now to a business owner who owns a place right near that elementary school, her name is tammy daugherty. what have you observed there in the area of the business, in the area of the school over the last hour and a half today? >> it first started as just a bunch of police sirens and basically we were just like, oh, my gosh, something big is going on, we had no idea, and then when we started finding out things on facebook and twitter, i'm just panicking, i feel like i can't even stand. >> what time did this all start? approximately what time? >> i want to say it was like

quarter to 10:00, maybe 9:30? >> we are looking at live pictures of the scene right near the sandy hook fire department, i'm sure you can picture where that is, how far is that from you right now. >> him looking right down the road and i can basically almost see all the cars there. >> what we're starting to see which is a great sign is children being reunited with their parents, which is something we hadn't seen in the last 15, 20 anyones since we have had these live pictures. that's a great sign. give us an idea of the kind of school sandy hook is, is it a neighborhood school? are all the kids that go to the school from that area, can you tell? >> we have a lot of elementary schools. my husband helps me out at the shop and that was his elementary school. and he's beside himself. he's like i can't believe this is happening at the school i

went to. >> is this a close knit community, do you know a lot of the people who work at the school? do you know a lot of the parents? >> i heknow a girl who's a teacher's aid there and she was already evacuated. i know the music teacher, i know a lot of people there, and my kids are friends with kids that go there. >> is the teach your talked to, did he or she fill in any of the blanks of what's happened there? what did they tell you happened at sandy hook elementary school? >> i texted her briefly and asked if she was okay and she said yes, she was evacuated and i didn't hear anything further from her. >> thanks so much for your perspective. >> thank you. we want to go now to -- >> we're working on getting some more information from another business owner at the scene, but

as we're looking now, there is some indication, as you can see there on the bottom left of your screen, you see parents walking through the scene right now, with children that look to be the right age for a k through 4 school. that's a greet sign. you can see liz interviewing a mom right now. >> let's listen in. >> she locked the door, she had the keys with her, thank god, and they moved to a corner and they didn't move. the principal was killed and several people were shot. >> do you know how many shoot issers we're talking about here? >> i know another friend of mine said that -- >> you just heard a report from a parent there at sandy hook elementary school that the

principal was shot this morning at at elementary school in newtown. can we listen to it again? >> and things this incident began, this is really the first in the past couple of minutes, this is the first time we have seen parents reunited with children. >> that's a very good sign of course and we're hoping that the damage from this was limited. this is a little girl from sandy hook, let's listen in. >> ms. martin closed the door and we went to the corn if. >> how many shots did you hear? >> lots. >> lots. like 12, 20, 30? do you know? >> i heard that he opened fire. that's all i heard. >> and someone saw children bleeding? >> when i arrived, i just pulled my car up and they said there was a little girl, a little boy. >> okay, we're working on getting more information on this interview, but you heard that one parent. >> such a difficult thing for these children to go through. i can only imagine. we're now going to go to -- >> again, live coverage coming

out of newtown, connecticut, wvit our affiliate there, and if you're just joining us, we're covering breaking news coming out of newtown, connecticut, that's about an hour outside of hartford, connecticut. what we know from a resident on the ground, reporting of something happening at sandy hook elementary school. that school has k through 4, we're talking about kids from 5 to 10 years old. 9:41, there was a call for help. 9:happ 9:57, a reverse 911 call went out to the residents in the area that there was something happening at that elementary school. now an hour and 45 minutes later, we're watching what's happening coming from these live pictures from cameras on the ground, what we understand floor

three patients at a local hospital. we are unsure as to whether they are adults or are children. clint van zandt has been watching this situation with us. clint, when i look at these pictures, and just a second ago, we're listening to a very young girl speak and trying to describe what she saw. was there blood, how many shots did she hear? we often associate high security areas with high schools. but we're talking about an elementary school, we're talking about 5 to 10-year-olds, we have seen metal detectors in high risk high schools. but are there elementary schools that are equipped to handle this sort of situation? >> i will tell you the answer is normally no, richard. as you suggest, the higher level of security we see is usually at the higher grades where you have a police officer, a deputy sheriff in some situations stationed there. otherwise, metal detectors. but in this case, when you're

dealing with kindergarten through second, third or fourth grade, we don't -- we try never to associate any act of violence with something like this. now, listening to the local affilia affiliates, the local reporters talking, suggesting that the principal may have been injured and some of the children may have been injured. and there's unconfirmed reports from local immediate media that the sheetder has been shot and is down. there was a suggestion that two shooters may have been involved in this situation. many times that earlier information turns out wrong because people are reporting or double reporting what they're seeing. but it appears if we take the experience of those inside,

somebody went into a school with a gun, a confrontation took place it appears in the office of the school and the principal of this grade school was critically injured if not killed. the shooter may be down and there may be injuries to children as law enforcement continue to try to sort this out on one more sad day in america. >> part of our reaction, clint, yours as well, is certainly emotional and when we look at these kids and this age group of five to ten years old, kindergarten through fourth grade, we don't see these story lines at this level of school, good thing. but take a step back for us, you know the full context in terms of these sorts of tragedies nationwide. can you do that for us? >> we can, richard, we have seen approximately 20 incidents like

this, into an environment like this, into a school, into a shopping mall, into a movie theater. what worries me, sometimes, richard, is that we're seeing so many of these, we have become somewhat numb and we don't realize the terrible emotional pain, the physical pain that's suffered, and realize again, this is something these children, their parents will carry. and it's one more place where we thought our children were safe. where reality has at least in this school has proven that's not the case. >> clint talk to us, what we're seeing right now, this is a staging area, looks to be we have some law enforcement officials, high-powered rifles, whether they're coming or going, looks like they're going at the moment. but what sort of unit is this and what might they be doing? >> we discussed earlier, first responders are almost always going to be uniformed officers. they're the first to respond to any situation. >> clint, stand by, we understand we have a reporter

from our affiliate speak right now. >> reporter: you heard from that mother firsthand that she heard that it was the principal, that has not been confirmed who was shot in this shooting. i just spoke to another child who kind of gave us -- they were in morning meetings when these shottings were fired. the children were path gathering inside their classrooms. the teachers locked the doors, the school was put on lockdown. once it was secure, we're told all of the children were rushed down here most of them to the fire department and that's where parents are now reporting to pick up their children. every single parent who is here showing up needs to bring proper id, because it is a very chaotic scene, and they want to make sure every child ends up in the right hands. a lot of kids did tell me they saw a couple of students

injured. two of them evidently bloody, and this was obviously a very dill situation for their kids, being shaken up. it's an absolute nightmare for parents who are in this area. i want to tell you that we are still seeing lots and lots of children coming out to the fire department here. we also heard reports that kids were being taken to area homes when this story first broke, just making sure they were taken to safe places. but again, you can see parents hugging their kids, making sure everyone is okay. lots to uncover here, we're going to continue talking to parents and student who is witnessed this all firsthand. >> we're watching a live reporter there coming out of wvit in newtown, connecticut. chris jansing is still with us and clint van zandt is still with us. we're reporting the principal being involved in this shooting, occurring during morning meetings, the children were

gathering in their classrooms. >> i have talked to clint on a number of these occasions, they flash in your mind, going back to columbine, gabby giffordgiff the first thought i had one, who go into a school with a bunch of little kids and opens fire? again, i don't want us to start talking about things that we have not had confirmed. but if indeed, somebody who was shot is an adult in the administration there, would you just put on your profiler hat, is this likely a workplace situation? a domestic incident? i mean god forbid somebody goes into a school and is trying to shoot little kids. >> i you're right. and unfortunately chris, that has happened in a number of european, in japan and a number of other locations we have had

in japan an individual went in with a knife and started stabbing people. this was somebody with a severe mental illness. we don't know what we have here. we don't know if in fact the principal was a victim of this believed shooter. we don't zero if this is something that related to the school. something outside of the school. but there seems to be a profile when we see most of these shootings, though, chris, it's someone who's angry, who's frustrated, who's rageful and who blames others for problems that they have in life and unfortunately, believe that they have almost a right to go and take out their anger and frustration and rage against another person. years ago we thought children they needed to get under their desks and hide because we were afraid of a nuclear threat from russia. now we have to teach children in

kindergarten and first grade what they have to do if a shooter come into their school. this is an anomaly, but if this happens more than -- >> we're just hearing from wnbc's jonathan dietz, hess reporting that there's one apparent shooter dead, he appears to be an adult. it's unclear how many other adults have been injured. there's no reports of any kids injured and he does not know if there are other adults injured. and also two handguns recovered. to both you and chris, one apparent shooter dead and he is an adult. this as we understand right now, according to state police there, they are going room by room, still at that location. of sandy hook elementary school and they will be holding a news conference at about 1:00 p.m. eastern time. we also again want to report

that two handguns have been reported. and just the timing here to the both of you, i mean sandy hook elementary, we were getting some sense of timing earlier that they were hearing shots around 9:00, and 9:05 is when the kindergarten starts and when they gather. so that's consistent with what we were reporting earlier. again, grades 1 through 4, this is a town about 60 miles from new york city. it covers, newtown about 60 square miles, it's the fifth larger town in the state. back to chris and clint, we know what's happening inside according to reports, but also outside, they have requested that parents come and gather their kids. the question to you, clint, might be, is now the right time for that and what does that tell you, the fact that they're asking parents to actually come to the site? is there the children are going to be scared, frightened, they don't know what took place, unfortunately, even though our

children see murders take place, see shootings take place on television, this is real life. so i think what they want to do is satisfy the urgent need for parents, number one, 20 know their children are safe and to put those children back in the arms of their parents, their care givers again so that family situation, that loving family situation can help get them past this. there's going to be cadhallenge children are going to suffer ptsd in this. >> stand by one second, clint, as you know, we're getting information coming -- let's listen, the mayor's on phone with vwvit. >> we're ordering in our early 4:00 to 12:00 shift to put more officers on the street right now. we also, our hospital is with the victims right now. and are working obviously. doing the things that they need to do. a difficult time and i just want to complement all the public safety personnel that are out there working. our offices right now are

assisting newtown pd in anything they need in terms of crime scene investigation and other things that are going on. a tough time, we want to reach the parents of this school districts are on top of this, we have all been communicating and everybody's monitoring this closely to make sure their children are safe. >> we have learned that three people have been rushed to danbury hospital, can you tell us anything about the victims and nature of their injuries? >> right now, i can't confirm that there are multiple victims and they're being treated at danbury hospital. i can't confirm who those folks are, obviously next of kin needs to be notified, those kinds of things and i cannot confirm in terms of what relationship they had within the building, whether they were student, whether they were an administrator or somewhere in between. >> we are now getting our first live pictures from above the scene. this is chopper pictures from our sister station in new york, above the scene here in newtown,

where there has been a shooting at sandy hook elementary school, in the past two hours, we are -- have been continuous coverage for more than an hour on this situation. what we have learned is that the principal was the targeted person, this is not officially from police, but from one parent of a child at sandy hook elementary school. and we also learned some information that there is one person dead and we have been led to believe that was the shooter who initiated this emergency situation. these are live pictures from above sandy hook elementary school in newtown. this is having a larger efblgts on newtown. all the schools in newtown are on lockdown. all the students in bethel have been locked down. and you just heard the -- >> a very sad day in the greater danbury area. >> we have been seeing pictures from on the ground and above,

and one thing is clear, there are dozens upon dozens of police officers and firefighters within this really small area, neighborhood around both sandy hook elementary school and the sandy hook fire department, a section of newtown. there's a staging area, active local fire department there, where they have ambulances at the ready, where we saw what appeared to be parents being reunited with students from sandy hook elementary. and we just got the information in, that any parents who have not picked up their child from sandy hook, can go do that at the staging area which is right near the school at the fire department. >> the newtown school's superintendent has just informed us that parents with children or a child at sandy hook elementary, they can go to that staging area to pick up their child. but the other schools in newtown, they are still in lockdown mode, but class is in session. >> we have seen first responders, police and ambulances and fire from a

variety of towns, both local towns all across western connecticut and state police, we got confirmation from lieutenant paul vansz of the connecticut state police, now about an hour ago that troopers from his agency responded sometime after 9:40, to sandy hook elementary school and begun the process of evacuating all the students and staff. >> and described as a platoon of connecticut state troopers on the scene going room to room, classroom to classroom to make sure all the teachers and students and personnel were evacuated. >> we go to our sister station, wnbc, thanks for checking in with us, what are you seeing there over the school? >> reporter: well, shirley and brad, as we get our first overhead pictures of the school here, you can see obviously a large police presence, police are now surrounded the school and we were hearing a little bit

earlier that they may or they not still be searching for a shooter in the area and then just a couple of minutes ago, we did get confirmation that that shooter has been shot dead. we're not kmablexactly sure whel this happened. as i come out a bit wider, you can ski the school. lots of police activity there. you can seek toward the center part of your screen, they have set up a staging area, we have local fire departments, along with local police and state police and other officials who are on the scene. and also they did receive several patients at danbury hospital, unconfirmed who the patients are and whether any additional patients will be brought over there. it looks to me like things are starting to calm down here. can't confirm exactly what is taking place down there on the ground as far as law enforcement is concerned. but it does look like things are beginning to calm down here, we're continuing to follow this

story from the ground and also up here. shirley and brad? >> thanks so much from our sister station wnbc, giving us live pictures from above the scene. we have just learned that another town in the greater dang bury area, near newtown brook ville schools, newtown schools are all in lockdown mode at this moment. >> we have some breaking news just in, brad and shirley. nbc "nightly news" is reporting that the apparent shooter is an adult. this is new information, we have one shooter dead that we know and two handguns recovered from the scene with that person. so the apparent shooter, an adult, dead, two handguns recovered from the scene. that is the very latest from nbc "nightly news" on this, of course still tense situation, police not talking as they're

still actively working this scene and a school shooting in an elementary school, which is very rare, we have seen them at high schools, but at this sandy hook elementary school. so apparent shooter dead, it was an adult. more information as soon as we receive it. >> we ant to go to nbc contract's amanda reuss who's also on the scene. >> reporter: we're actually seeing some parents being able to bring their kids, one mother was just so emotional, she couldibilicoul couldn't even talk, you could tell she was crying, her little son was all right. she's very shaken up, probably what would be a parent's worst nightmare, getting a call that there was a shooter inside the building. now outside here, we are still seeing a very big police presence, we have police surrounding the school, some of them with canines, we also have them with guns drawn, every time

we seen try to approach a little bit closer, we're pushed back. what they want to do is make sure that people are not outside, as you guys know, this school is really in a very residential neighborhood. right next to the school in back of it you have homes, right across the street you have homes so they want everybody to stay inside their house. we're seeing a little bit more calm right now, there's not as much running around, but earlier today, we did see that running, we saw them searching woodpiles, and there was this maintaining a police presence at least right now. >> amanda, we just learned from lisa carberg right now that an adult shooter is dead and they recovered two handguns from the scene. but from what you're seeing, would it appear that they're looking for another suspect?

>> reporter: it doesn't appear that they're searching for anybody, but they're not standing by just yet. they are still in the sustained positions they have been in for, you know, as long as we have been here. so at least, you know, 20 minutes, half hour. they're still waiting, they're stationed at different areas outside the building, so it doesn't look like they're going anywhere any time soon. >> we're looking at live pictures from our chopper in our sister station wnbc. right now, colleen, who's a former student at sandy hook elementary school. joins us live on the phone, she has been there at the scene for the better part of the morning. colleen, thanks fortunately being with us. what have you heard and seen this morning? >> i'm actually down the street, i work at a local toy department near the school. it's just sickening. i used to go to elementary school there and i'm literally in shock right now. >> can you describe for us what

kind of school this is? any problems there before in the past? >> it's just such a friend lid environment and we're in just a sleepy part of connecticut no one ever could have thought this could ever happen. >> we heard from one parent there at sandy hook whose child is currently a student that the principal had been targeted, do you know the principal inside sandy hook. >> i have heard that the prince has changed since i was there, but i also heard that the principal was targeted. >> okay, we're watching live pictures from a shop chopper cam, as well as wvit, wnbc covering that story. we're giving you the very latest information as we do get it in from all of our affiliates as well as our resources and if you

are just joining us, at 11:35 eastern time, it is at 9:41 a.m. eastern that we understand a 911 call came in about a shooting at sandy hook elementary school, there in newtown, connecticut. so two hours, roughly two hours ago, that call came in. sandy hook elementary school, and newtown. now newtown, is about an hour outside of hartford, about an hour and a half outside of the new york city. then we got reports later on in the morning as information started to come in that there were three individuals taken to a local hospital. later an apparent shooter dead, an adult. also two handguns recovered at the scene and we have a 1:00 news conference coming up. we're going to take a short break, we're going to continue to cover what's happening there live on the ground in newtown, connecticut.

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we are two hours go an dins end that we have been watching here on msnbc coming out of newtown, connecticut. sandy hook elementary school, a school that has 5 to 10-year-olds, a shoot agent that low case. apparent shooter dead. police on the ground still going room to room in this school that had about 39 teachers. we have a camera in the sky. cameras on the ground. clint van zandt has been watching this with us. clint, earlier on, we saw on this chopper cam view, a space that was both yellow and red or orange. what was that space? >> well, in a situation like this, richard, they set up individually both a triage area, where they can first deal with any injured, wournd nded people well as emergency response needs

to set up their own area. in a situation like this, you normally have local, county, state and federal law enforcement authorities. i'm sure there are well over 100 to 200 law enforcement officers somewhere in this vicinity right now. and of course, in a situation like this, you send everything you have, that's the first call. send us everything, every person, every vehicle you have and then at the scene, we'll figure out what we need, if we don't need them, we'll call them off, but we would rather have police, fire, emergency services on scene than have to call them later. >> if that were to be a triage area, in the chopper cam picture on your left, it sits below it farther to the right in terms of what i was alluding to. you're looking at the pictures as well as the law enforcement officials there in front of the school. from what you see the number and the pace and the way they are moving around, there is that space we were talking about a second ago, yellow and orange. what's your thought about what's happening? >> i think right now that law

enforcement as best they can are comfortable that they understand the situation, that they have identified the shooter, we're told the shooter is dead. we don't know whether that is because of a confrontation with the first responding law enforcement officers, or if that was a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the time. that's still to be determined. but we know that law enforcement is comfortable that one shooter is down and the initial suggested reports of potentially a second shooter, we don't see the level of activity that you would normally do if in fact you suspected a second gunman there. what i do find interesting, richard, in this terrible situation, is as you have reported, two handguns have been recovered. >> look at this picture right here. we have a cordoned off car that is unlike all the other cars in this parking lot. what might you make of it? >> i think it's likely to be the shooting suspect's vehicle.

just like law enforcement did in portland, in the shooting at the mall the other day, they very quickly have to identify the shooter's vehicle, determine what's in there, if that presents a threat to the immediate area. and now you'll have law enforcement, once they have identified him and his vehicle, they will be going to his house, computers, friends, relatives, everything that has to be done, you have to make sure there's no associated threat that may be going along with the shooting incident that's taken place this morning. >> watching these live chopper cam pictures. on the left, what appears to be a car that's been cordoned off, a black vehicle, live pictures from the ground. we have got dr. neil cull begig what can you describe for us in terms of what you're seeing? >> on the road that leads up to

sandy hook school has been closed off by the police and emergency vehicles. so on that road, there are as reported many, many first respondsers on the scene, ambulance, police, fire. i don't know anything specifically about any casualties. i toured the hospital, the level two trauma center, an excellent facility and i'm sure they're going up to handle anything that's is going to happen. >> let's talk about those children, that you saw an hour ago, in terms of the current situation of where the children are moving. >> the sandy hook's firehouse is right near the school. that is the staging area, i have been told the children will be moved there to reunite with their parents there. the pastor at --

>> i want to ask you about this if i can, danbury hospital, we have reports of three paitients right now. what can you talk about that facili facility, it's ability to handle such situations. >> we're a level two drama center which is one of the highest levels. we have a world class emergency department. it's a 371-bed hospital. we are trauma surgeons and, you know, we're equipped, i think for anything. >> have you spoken to any of your clolleagues there? >> no, i have not, i have a call in just like everybody else. >> definitely keep us up to date on that you said you have the monsignor there? >> yes, the monsignor of the

catholic schools here in newtown. >> thank you for handing the phone to him, i appreciate that. m monsignor weisz, thank you for being with us, your school is under lockdown as well. tell us about how you heard about this situation and what were the detailing? >> we were notified through the alarm system that's in our town, through the school system. we were told to -- our children were actually at mass, so we kept them in the church for quite a while. and then we sent them over where they are still 20g9 as one group. and we're just awaiting word from the officials what we should do from here. i'm more concerned about the parents who are here just waiting to find out happened to their children. because the majority of these

children are parishioners of ours and it's a terrible scene. it's just too much anticipation of what might be going on and what happened to their children. and of course there's no reports coming out yet. and children who witnessed this are terribly traumatized, they're crying, they're trying to hold on to their parents, they want to go home but they don't want to leave their friends. it's a critical situation here, i'm in a room filled with parents who can't find their child. and the anxiety in this room the just overwhelming. so we're here just to support and enkurj them. >> mon seen your weisz is a religious leader, i know it's an emotional moment but they're lucky to have you there to help them through this.

monsign monsigno monsignor--they seem to be holding -- the school itself is fairly isolated, at least surrounded by a lot of shrubbery. when you were looking at those pictures as they were scanning that offsite area, what were your thoughts? >> i think that law enforcement has to satisfy itself that there's no one else who may have been involved in this terrible situation. perhaps from the shooting aspect, but in a situation like this too, richard, sometimes there's this helter skelter, where potential verdicts, students, teachers will and rightfully so will exit the building an run, and law enforcement has to service themselves that no one else has fled from the building, either who may have been directly involved in the shooting or who may have been a potential victim that they could still be out there too. i'm hearing a report from one of the ambulances in the local

area. that one of the victims was a parent who had been shot and was taken to a local hospital. but unfortunately, there appears to be other victims too. >> we're going to go for a quick break, clint, when you come back, as well as the monsignor, perhaps dr. culligan who is there on the ground, we're going to step back on the timeline here, we're about 2 hours and 15 minutes since this tragedy about an hour and a half outside of new york city. stay tuned, we'll have more for you in just a comit. [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus presents the cold truth. i have a cold, and i took nyquil, but i'm still "stubbed" up. [ male announcer ] truth is, nyquil doesn't unstuff your nose. what? [ male announcer ] it doesn't have a decongestant.

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back to breaking news out of newtown, connecticut. about an hour and a half outside of new york city. we continue to get more information. the very latest is that we have one apparent death of a shooter, two handguns recovered with that shooter. three individuals in the hospital right now. watching along with us has been clint van zandt as well as veteran news anchor and reporter

chris jansing. chris, i want to get your thoughts and, clint, please, as well, do pipe in. >> i was very taken, as i'm sure everyone who was listening was by the monsignor at the local catholic school who was observing the parents and the students who were obviously extremely traumatized, and the description that he gave was that obviously these children are clinging to their parents, but they also don't want to leave their friends, and, clint, obviously many of these schools have counselors. you and i having covered so many of these, recognize that you don't have to have been shot to be a victim in a circumstance like this. what kinds of people can they bring in? what kinds of training can be brought to bare to help both these parents and these very young students who have seen something horrific this morning? >> well, you're right, chris. this is going to be a challenge because it's going to take men and women who are specially trained in dealing with traumatic situations with

children. >> what was observed at the scene is when police were evacuating the school, because these children were so young, such a tender age, they had to make sure that a teacher, a police officer, somebody was with these children sometimes one-on-one because of the shock they were going through to take them on this relatively short trip, fortunately, which is from the school to the fire department across the street where they were staging children hoping to quickly reunite these children with their parents. chris, you know, we know the challenge many america. many times we have both parents that are working, so now we have parents who may be in new york city trying to find their way back again to get somebody to come pick up their children in this terrible situation, and we don't know yet, chris, who all the victims are. we know that the shooter is supposedly shot and killed. i have seen one report that a teacher was wounded.

we've had other suggestions of sightings of children with blood on them, so we don't know yet the full course of the injury, the damage that's been sustained by the school by the people -- >> one second. we do have sound from one of the children on the scene. let's take a listen. >> i was in the gym, and i heard a loud -- well, i heard, like, seven loud booms, and the gym teacher told us to go in the corner, so we all huddled, and i kept hearing these booming noises, and we all started -- well, we didn't scream. we started crying, so all the gym teachers told us to go into the office where no one could find us, so then a police officer came in and told us to run outside, so we did, and we came in the fire hit-or-miss and waited for our parents. >> such difficult video to

watch. we're talking about 5 to 10-year-olds describing a shooting. it's about 600 students that had to go through this this morning, according to what we have been watching. 39 teachers. we're talking about kindergarten through fourth grade. this incident now about two and a half hours old. very difficult and emotional. if you have children in your family, if you have nieces, if you have nephews, you cannot help when you see these pictures to understand the ram fiction, the depth of what we're seeing here happening in newtown, connecticut. stay with msnbc. we are going to continue to cover this breaking story coming out of newtown, connecticut, and sandy hook elementary school. ♪ don't know what i'd do ♪ i'd have nothing to prove ♪ i'd have nothing to lose [ male announcer ] zales is the diamond store. take up to an extra 15 percent off storewide, now through sunday.

good afternoon. we're beginning with breaking news. a shooting at sandy hook elementary school in newtown, connecticut, which is a school of 600, 5 to 10-year-olds. the apparentot